This may or may not count for anything in the overall scheme of things. But this week, I’ve been dreaming of sticks and twines. This is a change for me because generally I dream of the finished ...
Why does this picture make me cry? This is a grand moment for our astronauts. Any launch into space is a grand moment. We are these little creatures with all this intelligence, daring to go out and me...
“Don’t worry about your talent or capability: that will grow as you practice.” – Natalie Goldberg, from Writing Down the Bones. In this chapter, she is talking about the fact t...
This book was a Christmas present from my husband and kids. I am the one responsible for researching what we’re doing here with this garden. Here’s a quote from Chapter One! “I have ...
This was actually a little while ago. This is me out cutting down the weeds to prepare our garden plot. Something I never dreamed I would be excited about, so excited that I was clapping my hands in g...
I grew up playing in a castle. My parents were members of an organization whose headquarters was an actual castle, and as little children, my sisters and I played all over that place and ran up windin...
For me, the challenge is balance. Perhaps my goals are too lofty. Perhaps I have too many things I’d like to accomplish in life. I want a happy family. I have a job that I adore. And I’m a...
And this is how we started our New Year. Scott and I were using the bobcat and the tractor to move dirt around since it was a lovely sunny day in Southern Oregon. We’d been moving dirt to the ga...
For our 8th Anniversary, in August of 2011, my husband got me a duck. The first animal for our little farm. The Grand Poo-Bah of all our yet to come farm animals. He’ll be the one in charge of a...
Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden about getting out into the wild, leaving civilization and exploring what it meant to live simply, intentionally. Oh – I need to get my hands on that book again a...
A little Snowdrop – the first flower to bloom after the New Year. This is the flower we will be planting for Michael, our oldest, whose Birthday is in January. For years, I’ve wanted consi...
Well – if you watch to the end (and it’s just over a minute long) – you’ll see that Ben is a Big Fan of Iron Man! I think I may have mentioned that before!...
The Iron Man costume that Ben is in the middle of building. He has done all the cutting, shaping, and welding himself (with supervision, of course)! Iron Man made out of Legos (The first three picture...
Consistency is simply not my forte – not my strength. So much I wish. So much I want. The hours of stillness before everyone is up, before all the needs of everyone start piling up before me. So much ...
We worked all day! First we watched a Behind the Scenes video on the Monsters, Inc. DVD that showed the filmmakers creating storyboards. Ben worked in his two-story playhouse (that was on property whe...
Last night, Ben had to crawl in bed with me – at nearly seven years old – and snuggle because his imagination was scaring him. Who knows where this is coming from? We don’t watch sca...
Last night we watched the family movie, “The Last Airbender.” It is a fantastic tale of a mystic world where people have powers of bending earth, bending water, bending fire, or bending air. Nations f...
In honor of the Canadian singer, K.D. Lang’s, birthday; I want to look at the beauty in her face, her spirit, her soul, her life and her voice and consider what beauty really is compared to what...
This is not a place where I think I’m a great writer. This is where I come to let myself be with the process, continue writing every day, no matter what! I read two chapters tonight. “Arti...
November 1st is Lyle Lovett‘s birthday, and so I want to dwell on him with adoration. Today I would like to look at beauty from the perspective of what beauty sounds like. What do you know about...
Writing as Practice from Writing Down The Bones “Writing practice embraces your whole life and doesn’t demand any logical form: no chapter 19 following the action in chapter 18. It’s...
This is a 10 minute Timed Writing from the chapter in Writing Down The Bones about First Thoughts. (I always hand-write a timed writing. I like the feeling of pen to paper.) “Explore the rugged ...
On the morning that I begin again on my quest to develop my writing, what should appear in my mailbox but the most beautiful literary journal of all time? I subscribe to many writing magazines and poe...
This is the mural my six-year old and I just painted over the weekend!...
Instead of the proverbial skeleton in the closet – the kind of secret that is dangerous – Ben just has an actual skeleton (or parts of one) hanging around in his closet. He’s hoping ...